Well in my family (I'm English) all males in the family be intimidating at first until they know if the lad is alright at not. But when I met my cousin's boyfriend I was only a dick for like an hour until I realised he's awesome.

There's a difference between taking an interest in your daughter's love life, and threatening the guy with a shotgun. One ensures she doesn't end up on 16 and pregnant, the other ensures she has as much sex as possible just to get back at you.

What I was saying is that the mentality that I described is NOT how most guys would think. I'm saying that he wouldn't give 2 ***** about missing parts of the movie. But I guess I get what you were saying now - "if its a good movie then he should see it before his mind is clouded with popcorn and boobs, because then he won't care." Yes? No?

It was actually more of a half sarcastic note at the "rules of dating." I have yet to see Ironman 3 (because it's not even out yet), yet if (when) I see it, if an opportunity arises to get some ass, I'm just gonna go see the damn movie some other time to pick up any missed plot points during the whole ordeal...

I'd be surprised if it's not normal elsewhere to sit down the boyfriend and have a chat to make sure he won't knock your daughter up or won't hurt her, etc. That's just basic fatherly protection.

That said, I'm reasonably sure the introduction of weapons to the mix was an American initiative. It just seems like something we'd think of, you know?

Bonus Story time! My dad decided to clean his AR-15, Glock, and H&K pistols, since I was home from college on break at the time I pulled out my H&K .45 to join in, when a kid was going to be dating my sister and he had a particularly....unsavory reputation, shall we say. You could practically hear his knees knocking together and later on he turned out to be a halfway decent kid.

My dad and uncles always interrogate new boyfriends and girlfriends. They had my cousin's girlfriend in tears the first time she met them. She swore she was never going to another family party ever again. Now they're married with 3 kids and she organizes a good portion of get togethers.